History Main / GetBackInTheCloset

* On this very site, any time homosexuals or otherwise are so much as alluded to on a show meant for kids, it almost always gets labeled as GettingCrapPastTheRadar. Though this isn't necessarily due to the tropers' view on the subject and is instead how they perceive the executives and MoralGuardians to act. And, to be fair, most examples ''treat'' it as such; while a work like ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' has no problems in addressing the existence of LGBT people, things like ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' have whatever subtext they have as basically treated in the same way they treat "adult jokes": implied, [[QueerPeopleAreFunny humorous as means to "soften the impact"]], kept as vague as possible, et cetera.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', the protagonist Judai [[RomanticFusion becomes]] an OfficialCouple with Yubel, an {{intersex}} draconic monster who was his OneTrueLove in their [[ReincarnationRomance past life]] as humans. Yubel's [[AmbiguousGenderIdentity gender is unspecified]] even in their past life, and in their monster form their voice frequently switches between feminine and masculine, while their body has a female right half with [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics obvious eyelashes]], a clothed breast and a curvy figure, and a male left half with a flatter, bare pec and a more angular figure. In the Creator/FourKidsEntertainment English dub, however, Yubel is explicitly a woman complete with a feminine voice and an edited clothed breast in place of their bare pec. To make things extra confusing, even after all of these changes, the dialogue between the two is still rewritten to remove the romance and Yubel's past life is given an obviously ''male'' voice.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', the protagonist Judai [[RomanticFusion becomes]] an OfficialCouple with Yubel, an {{intersex}} draconic monster who was his OneTrueLove in their [[ReincarnationRomance past life]] as humans. Yubel's [[AmbiguousGenderIdentity gender is unspecified]] even in their past life, and in their monster form their voice frequently switches between feminine and masculine, while their body has a female right half with [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics obvious eyelashes]], a clothed breast and a curvy figure, and a male left half with a flatter, bare pec and a more angular figure. In the Creator/FourKidsEntertainment English dub, however, Yubel is explicitly a woman complete with a feminine voice and an edited clothed breast in place of their bare pec. And even after doing all of that, they still removed pretty much all of the romance between them and Judai, anyways.

* On ''Website/{{Neopets}}'', discussing controversial topics is banned. Such topics include, alongside [[BanOnPolitics politics and religion]]... LGBT+ issues. This means the identities of some users cannot be discussed without carefully dancing around terminology and hoping the mods aren't looking. Oddly, such rules are still in place even ''years after'' said users persuaded the people running the site to allow players to set their genders as "other", with the accompanying editorial making it quite clear that the option was added so nonbinary people could use it. Despite that, said nonbinary people still aren't allowed to mention their genders on the boards, aside from via the aforementioned profile setting, and users who aren't straight still aren't allowed to mention their orientations even while dressing their Rainbow pets up in pride colors. The ban is allegedly because discussing such things could lead to out-of-control arguments, harassment, and threats, but the rule is still a bit out of place and people have pointed out that such problems [[SocietyMarchesOn aren't all that likely to arise among today's users]]. It's most likely a remnant of a previous era that simply hasn't been updated yet, much like the games which no longer work and the old artwork which still hasn't been redrawn.

Not to be confused with HideYourLesbians, which refers to the tendency to reduce canon gay relationships to subtext; or ClosetGay, where a character is explicitly hiding their orientation (although that can provide a pretext for this.) See also ButNotTooGay for the downplaying of sexuality/exclusion of gay affection altogether. Not related at all to ClosetPunishment.

Not to be confused with HideYourLesbians, which refers to the tendency to reduce canon gay relationships to subtext. See also ButNotTooGay for the downplaying of sexuality/exclusion of gay affection altogether. Not related at all to ClosetPunishment.

** In revenge, some writers started [[HetIsEw warning for heterosexual content]].

* After Ellen Morgan came out on ''Ellen'' every episode of the series received a TV-MA rating regardless of the actual content. [=DeGeneres=] complained bitterly about this, noting episodes of ''The Drew Carey Show'' and ''Spin City'' in which pairs of male characters kissed but didn't receive harsher ratings. She suspects it was because the actors involved in the kissing were known to be straight in real life.

* The infamous gay marriage episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' (season 16's "There's Something About Marrying") became the first episode on American TV to get a content warning before the episode started [[note]] On FOX, content warnings are reserved for just the Creator/SethMacFarlane cartoons -- ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' especially -- and the oddball shows like ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', ''WesternAnimation/AllenGregory'', the short-lived series ''WesternAnimation/SitDownShutUp'', and the cartoon adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/NapoleonDynamite''[[/note]] and was rated TV-14 for strong sexual themes (in this case, gay marriage). This is coming from a show that regularly contains child abuse, gambling, death, alcohol abuse, juvenile delinquency, sex, attempted murder, explicit animal blood and gore, and other humor that is usually considered cruel or dark, yet often gets away with a TV-PG rating. Older episodes with gay content have gotten away with just the TV-PG ratings, so the content raters aren't consistent in this area.

* ''G.B.F.'' (Gay Best Friend) is rated R despite having no sexual moments or strong language. Wiki/TheOtherWiki notes that the MPAA tends to be harsher on independent movies than major studio-backed films.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Onward'', a lesbian cyclops policewoman mentions her same-sex partner and children. In the Russian dub, the gender of her partner isn't mentioned at all, and the film was banned in several Arab countries.

* The original English dub of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' famously tried to hide Haruka/Amara and Michiru/Michelle's relationship by making them cousins... without changing any of the visuals, resulting in these two "cousins" acting ''[[KissingCousins unusually close]]''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH9TJj9Qj-Q a skit]] where a LemonyNarrator talks about the "science" of love. The ending of the skit, where a man and a woman fall in love with members of the same sex and the narrator saying that there are no rules to love, was cut in Poland despite being the entire point.

* Invoked in-universe in the season 3 episode of ''Series/{{Glee}}'' "Heart" Where Principal Figgins stops newly out couple [[spoiler:Santana and Brittany]] when they are about to kiss in the school hallway as other students might find it offensive. [[spoiler:Santana]] is quick to point out how unfair this is, citing Rachel and Finn as an example and eventually leaves the office in an angry huff. Also in the third season, a warning for parental discretion was shown during the episode where gay couple Kurt and Blaine lose their virginity to each other, despite there being no graphic contact at all, just a shot of them snuggling in bed and the implication afterwards. However, there was no such warning in previous episodes where characters had sex since the pairings were opposite genders. Fox seems to have learned their lesson, as there was no such warning in a later episode where couples of all stripes hook up after Will's [[RunawayBride aborted first wedding]] to Emma, including Kurt and Blaine as well as Santana and [[BiTheWay Quinn]]. Santana and Quinn's hookup was entirely off-screen (just the "after" shot of them in bed) but Kurt and Blaine's car makeout was seen in full, well-lit glory.

* Music/KidzBop, a CD compilation series that features children covering number one hits, is infamous for [[{{Bowdlerize}} Bowdlerizing]] songs that were never intended for kids in the first place. Their "clean" version of [[{{BiTheWay}} bisexual]] Music/LadyGaga's "Born This Way" removes all mention of the LGBT community, despite being the entire point of the song. Furthermore, their cover of Music/{{Halsey}}'s "Bad at Love", where she describes her failed relationships with both male and female lovers, has only the males sing the parts about the females.

* Internet search filters in some schools prohibit the search of 'gay', 'lesbian', or anything along those lines.

** As a general trend, this seems to have died down in recent years; slash fiction is so prolific now that it's hardly a surprise to see it anymore, as well as general attitudes towards LGBTQIA+ issues improving over time. A specific example of this trope being averted in fandom spaces is Archive Of Our Own, which has a filtering system for specific pairing types (Gen, M/F, M/M, F/F, Multi, and Other) that is separate from their age rating system - on that site at least, the tags for "yaoi" or "slash" rarely get used as there's no need to add it as an additional content warning (if a specific author wanted to rate their slash fiction as being more "adult" than their M/F works, then theoretically they could - but it would be much more noticeable to do so).

* In recent years, the most frequently banned/challenged books in libraries have included an increasing number of children-oriented LGBTQ books. The American Library Association's [[http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 Top Ten Most Challenged Books list for 2019]] had the top three books be ''George'' (a book with a trans girl as the main character), ''Literature/ADayInTheLifeOfMarlonBundo'' (a picture book about two male bunnies falling in love and getting married), and the ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' series (which showed one of the main characters married to another man in the DistantFinale). Other than discussing LGBTQ issues or featuring LGBTQ characters, none of these books have any content that's worse than what you'd find in a typical children's book.

* Similarly, Google Instant won't automatically complete most gay-related searches (including those that are still not [=NSFW=] or inappropriate for minors) until you hit Enter. Gay news websites are treated as gingerly as sites with adult content.

* On this very site, any time homosexuals or otherwise are so much as alluded to on a show meant for kids, it almost always gets labeled as GettingCrapPastTheRadar. Though this isn't necessarily due to the tropers' view on the subject and is instead how they perceive the executives and MoralGuardians to act. And, to be fair, most examples pretty much ''treat'' it as such; while a work like ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' has no problems in addressing the existence of LGBT people, things like ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' have whatever subtext they have as basically treated in the same way they treat "adult jokes": implied, [[QueerPeopleAreFunny humorous as means to "soften the impact"]], kept as vague as possible, et cetera.

* This is supposedly the sole reason why the ''Rawhide Kid'' mini Creator/MarvelComics did a while back was in the MAX imprint, even if he was just somewhat hinted to be gay. [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18502_the-5-most-unintentionally-offensive-comic-book-characters.html Through constant and offensive innuendo]].

* On ''Website/{{Neopets}}'', LGBT+ users have been rather frustrated by the fact that their identities fall afoul of the rule banning the discussion of controversial topics, and as such, cannot be discussed without carefully dancing around terminology and hoping the mods aren't looking. Such rules are still around even ''years after'' said users persuaded the people running the site to allow players to set their genders as "other", with the accompanying editorial making it quite clear that the option was added so nonbinary people could use it. Despite that, said nonbinary people still aren't allowed to mention their genders on the boards, aside from via the aforementioned profile setting, and users who aren't straight still aren't allowed to mention their orientations even while dressing their Rainbow pets up in pride colors. Although the rule is allegedly because such topics, along with assorted other ones [[BanOnPolitics such as politics and religion]], could lead to out-of-control arguments, harassment, and threats, the rule is still a bit out of place and people have pointed out that such problems [[SocietyMarchesOn aren't all that likely to arise among today's users]]. It's most likely a remnant of a previous era that simply hasn't been updated yet, much like the games which no longer work and the old artwork which still hasn't been redrawn.

* A same-sex kiss in ''[[Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker]]'' was edited out for its release in Singapore.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' was guilty of this for two whole games. In the first game, you can romance a genderless but female-presenting alien, Liara, who has become a mascot for the DiscountLesbians trope since the relationship is only gay from a human perspective. In the second game, you can have a fling with a pansexual human female, Kelly, that does not grant you any recognition on the romance achievement. It takes until ''Mass Effect 3'' for gay relationships to be granted equal standing; it is also the first game in the franchise to allow any kind of ''male'' same-sex romance. This is despite the fact that the second game allows you to romance three very inhuman aliens as if that's somehow more normal than a same-sex romance.

* When [=PopGirl=] in the UK started censoring ''[[{{WesternAnimation/Sixteen}} 6teen]]'' so younger viewers could watch it, they stopped airing the episode where Nikki had a lesbian co-worker and the episode where Jen developed a "girl crush" on her new boss. Oddly, they still aired the episode where a gay cowboy bids on Jonesy.
** Cartoon Network in the US didn't air the lesbian co-worker episode even once.

* The dark comedy ''Film/ILoveYouPhillipMorris'' had a delayed American release for this reason - distributors supposedly refused to pick it up due to its fairly graphic sex scenes. It was released in more liberal places, like Europe, though. Fortunately, it was ultimately averted as it did eventually receive a release and became rather popular (especially in DVD sales and on streaming sites, like Netflix).
** It took a while to come out in Australia too, as MoralGuardians are just as big in Australia as in America, if not more so - many things only see edited release there if they are released at all. The MoralGuardians have more pulling power over the media than the general public does.

* The documentary ''Film/ThisFilmIsNotYetRated'' had additional examples of this: It showed straight and gay sex scenes with similar action, positions and lighting side-by-side on the screen, then pointed out that the films with gay scenes almost invariably had far stronger ratings (usually NC-17 as opposed to R).

** Oddly enough, other PG-13 films like ''Film/FarFromHeaven'' have featured gay kisses so the MPAA isn't even consistent in that area. This, of course, takes us back to ''Film/ThisFilmIsNotYetRated''.
* The film ''Film/MaVieEnRose'', about a male-born 7-year-old child who identifies as a girl, was given an R rating for this reason, although the "official" reason is "brief strong language."

The tendency of MoralGuardians to be harsher toward homosexuality than heterosexuality. In American media, male/female couples can kiss and make out, but even a slight peck from a same-sex couple is an automatic PG-13, if not an R. And of course, there's no way to include even a tame homosexual sex scene without getting an R or NC-17 rating. UnfortunateImplications of this become [[ValuesDissonance even more apparent]] as [[SocietyMarchesOn gay people become more accepted and equal in society]], or [[ValuesDissonance at least in the West]].

The tendency of MoralGuardians to be harsher toward homosexuality than heterosexuality. In American media, male/female couples can kiss and make out, but even a slight peck from a same-sex couple is an automatic PG-13, if not an R. And of course, there's no way to include even a tame homosexual sex scene without getting an R or NC-17 rating. UnfortunateImplications of this become [[ValuesDissonance even more apparent]] as [[SocietyMarchesOn gay people become more accepted and equal in society]].

* The English dub of ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'', while not really that great to begin with, made a ham-handed attempt to edit out Mirage/Shockfleet's obvious [[SubordinateExcuse love for his leader]]. Unfortunately for them they could only bring it down to HoYay levels, as there's no real way to rewrite a blossoming pink heart behind Mirage's transformation sequence after [[spoiler:discovering Megatron was still alive]].

* Works of slash often raise their ratings for exactly this reason, and homosexual content is often listed as a warning alongside violence and nudity. This system is even present at some fan fiction recommendation pages on this site.[[note]]For the record, official policy on fanfic rec pages is to treat slash ships the same as het ships, and has been for some years now. Anything on a fanfic rec page that indicates otherwise is a remnant from an earlier time, and is best zapped.[[/note]]

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' [[spoiler:Mitch]] reveals he has a boyfriend. In some foreign dubbed versions it's changed to girlfriend.

* The dark comedy ''Film/ILoveYouPhillipMorris'' had a delayed American release for this reason - distributors supposedly refused to pick it up due to its fairly graphic sex scenes. It was released in more liberal places, like Europe, though. Fortunately it was ultimately averted as it did eventually receive a release and became rather popular (especially in DVD sales and on streaming sites, like Netflix).
** It took a while to come out in Australia too, as MoralGuardians are just as big in Australia as in America, if not more so - many things only see edited release there if they are released at all. The MoralGuardians have more pulling power over the media than the general public do.

* Invoked in-universe in the season 3 episode of ''Series/{{Glee}}'' "Heart" Where Principal Figgins stops newly out couple [[spoiler:Santana and Brittany]] when they are about to kiss in the school hallway as other students might find it offensive. [[spoiler:Santana]] is quick to point out how unfair this is, citing Rachel and Finn as an example and eventually leaves the office in an angry huff. Also in the third season, a warning for parental discretion was shown during the episode where gay couple Kurt and Blaine lose their virginity to each other, despite there being no graphic contact at all, just a shot of them snuggling in bed and the implication afterwards. However, there were no such warning in previous episodes where characters had sex since the pairings were opposite genders. Fox seems to have learned their lesson, as there was no such warning in a later episode where couples of all stripes hook up after Will's [[RunawayBride aborted first wedding]] to Emma, including Kurt and Blaine as well as Santana and [[BiTheWay Quinn]]. Santana and Quinn's hookup was entirely off screen (just the "after" shot of them in bed) but Kurt and Blaine's car makeout was seen in full, well lit glory.
* American soap operas have been called out for the double standard they use to treat their gay romances. Notably ''Series/AsTheWorldTurns'' with gay couple Luke and Noah. Fans instituted a "kiss clock" marking how long it had been since their last kiss. It was over 6 months, in a genre that has people hopping in and out of bed on a regular basis. ''Series/GuidingLight's'' gay couple suffered similarly with hand holding and longing looks being the extent of affection seen. ABC and NBC have made more of an effort to give more than lip service to treating their gay soap couples the same as the straight ones.

* Website/YouTube [[http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/01/26/video-youtube-pulls-non-family-safe-gay-music-ad/ pulled a 16-second sponsoring ad]] that featured two men in their underwear in an emotional embrace, saying it "promoted mature sexual themes" and was "non family safe". It was an excerpt from a Music/PerfumeGenius music video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOpkr8uNWpk YouTube still hosts]]. The other man in the video is recognized by ''some'' as the ManlyGay {{Bear}} porn star Arpad Miklos, but this would not likely be recognized by a random viewer who has never seen an Arpad Miklos porno.

* After Yahoo bought Website/{{Tumblr}}, it has set a rather unnecessarily complicated tag blocking system to make it "kid friendly". Among the deleted tags? "Gay", "lesbian", "bisexual", even simply "lgbt". "Straight" isn't blocked, and neither are far more explicit tags like "rape". This turned out to be an aversion though: the real reason those were blocked was because most things tagged with them were NotSafeForWork (as in ''pornography'') and they risked getting the Tumblr app pulled from app stores because of it. It's now possible to search those tags again, with most NSFW stuff left out. ([[http://staff.tumblr.com/post/55906556378/all-weve-heard-from-a-bunch-of-you-who-are Question 2 is the relevant one]].)
* On ''Website/{{Neopets}}'', LGBT+ users have been rather frustrated by the fact that their their identities fall afoul of the rule banning the discussion of controversial topics, and as such, cannot be discussed without carefully dancing around terminology and hoping the mods aren't looking. Such rules are still around even ''years after'' said users persuaded the people running the site to allow players to set their genders as "other", with the accompanying editorial making it quite clear that the option was added so nonbinary people could use it. Despite that, said nonbinary people still aren't allowed to mention their genders on the boards, aside from via the aforementioned profile setting, and users who aren't straight still aren't allowed to mention their orientations even while dressing their Rainbow pets up in pride colors. Although the rule is allegedly because such topics, along with assorted other ones [[BanOnPolitics such as politics and religion]], could lead to out-of-control arguments, harassment, and threats, the rule is still a bit out of place and people have pointed out that such problems [[SocietyMarchesOn aren't all that likely to arise among today's users]]. It's most likely a remnant of a previous era that simply hasn't been updated yet, much like the games which no longer work and the old artwork which still hasn't been redrawn.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' was guilty of this for two whole games. In the first game you can romance a genderless but female-presenting alien, Liara, who has become a mascot for the DiscountLesbians trope, since the relationship is only gay from a human perspective. In the second game, you can have a fling with a pansexual human female, Kelly, that does not grant you any recognition on the romance achievement. It takes until ''Mass Effect 3'' for gay relationships to be granted equal standing; it is also the first game in the franchise to allow any kind of ''male'' same-sex romance. This is despite the fact that the second game allows you to romance three very inhuman aliens, as if that's somehow more normal than a same-sex romance.

* There was a spin-off of the PBS television show ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' called ''Postcards from Buster''. [[OvershadowedByControversy It is remembered for little more than the fact that]] one episode got banned for showing [[HasTwoMommies an (implied) lesbian family]]. The parent show would eventually subvert this full force in Season 22, when Mr. Ratburn and his boyfriend eventually got married, though played straight when Alabama Public Television refused to air the episode.

* The series finale of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' ends with [[spoiler:Korra and Asami]] becoming a couple, though the fact that they never kiss, merely hold hands, had some viewers argue that this was ambiguous. Creator Konietzko wrote that the same-gender relationship is canon, and that while Nickelodeon was supportive of this decision, "there was a limit to how far [they] could go with it"- meaning no kissing, even though every heterosexual romance in both this show and [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender its predecessor]] got one.

* John Byrne planted hints throughout the early run of ''Alpha Flight'' that Northstar was gay. Nearing issue 50, Northstar started battling a mysterious illness, originally planned as AIDS, which would kill him in issue 50. [[ExecutiveMeddling Editorial interference]] ensued, possibly because of the rumored edict by Jim Shooter that there were no gays in the Marvel Universe, And Northstar (and twin sister Aurora) were retconned as half-human, half Asgardian elf. Northstar's illness was the result of an "allergic reaction" to the Earth. He departed for Asgard. Of course this revelation came from Loki so some months later we look in on Northstar berating himself for falling for such an obvious lie from the literal God of Lies. Even the local elves were bagging on him in the background.

* After Ellen Morgan came out on ''Ellen'' every episode of the series received a TV-MA rating regardless of the actual content. [=DeGeneres=] complained bitterly about this, noting episodes of ''The Drew Carey Show'' and ''Spin City'' in which pairs of male characters kissed but didn't receive harsher ratings. She suspects it was because the actors involved in the kissing were known to be straight in real life..